NYT columnist brands The Last of Us as CONSERVATIVE after episode three created 'private paradise'

A New York Times columnist has labeled the Last of Us as a conservative show after its latest episode featured a private paradise created by a doomsday prepper.

The HBO series' third episode, which fans hailed as one of the greatest television episodes ever, stars Nick Offerman as a prepper named Bill, who sets up a fenced-community for himself to survive the zombie apocalypse in comfort. 

While the episode earned acclaim for its portrayal of a gay couple, journalist Michelle Goldberg claimed the episode 'tricked sentimental liberals into rooting for a resource-hoarding gun nut defying evil pandemic authorities.'

Goldberg added: 'If they weren't queer, I suspect it would be obvious that this is an upscale suburban version of a right-wing fantasy.' 

New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg claimed episode three of the Last of Us  was conservative and 'tricked sentimental liberals into rooting for a resource-hoarding gun nut defying evil pandemic authorities'

The episode starred Nick Offerman as a gun toting doomsday prepper whose distrust of the government allowed him to escape death and have everything he needs in the apocalypse

The setting features the fenced community Offerman's character, Bill, created to protect his resources and fight off invaders 

The New York Times columnist claims the hit HBO show celebrates Bill's 'deeply conservative' story, which begins with the doomsday prepper avoiding military officials rounding up citizens for quarantine. 

Bill's distrust is proven right as viewers were shown earlier in the episode that his neighbors were ultimately killed by the military because there was no more room in the quarantine communities. 

What follows is a montage of Bill setting up his private paradise filled with hot showers, red wine and farm-to-table cuisine, while the rest of the world plummets in the zombie apocalypse. 

Goldberg said it realizes the fantasy of preppers, people who hoard resources and weapons in secret bunkers in case of world-ending emergencies.  

Goldberg also claims the show brings to life 'some right-wingers dream of building fortresses against invading mobs.' 

In the episode, Bill's defense system is able to kill and ward off invaders going after his resources.  

Goldberg claimed Bill's community was an 'upscale suburban version of a right-wing fantasy'

She also claimed it brings to life 'some right-wingers dream of building fortresses against invading mobs.' Pictured: Bill fighting off raiders who set off his security system 

While Goldberg branded the show conservative, some on the right claimed the show went 'woke' after it deviated from its video game source to put the focus of the episode on Bill's homosexual relationship with Frank, played by Murray Barlett. 

Goldberg, however, said that the criticism over the gay relationship blinded those on the right from seeing their alleged values on screen. 

'I naïvely thought that some conservatives, who frequently complain about not seeing their values represented in pop culture, might thrill to the episode,' she wrote. 

'[It's] a story about a strong man whose suspicion of the government, facility with weapons and practical skills allow him to defend the one he loves, building a domestic idyll safe from the ravening hordes.  

'And it’s one embedded in a show in which the government’s pandemic response leads to an incompetent but brutal brand of fascism.'   

Goldberg added that while some on the right slammed the show for its depiction of a gay couple, they missed that the show was allegedly pandering to them 

But fans of the show have dubbed it among the best episodes in television history and praised its presentation of two men falling in love while the world ends around them 

Despite the criticism levied against it, episode three stands as a favorite among fans who were enthralled by the romance that blossomed between Bill and Frank. 

Viewers took to social media to praise the show for depicting a gay romance through a positive lens, with one writing: 'The last of us created one of the most beautiful depictions of love and devotion and growing old together i can’t stop thinking about it it was perfection.' 

Another wrote: 'I have never felt more shock and unpreparedness than going into the last of us episode 3 thinking I'm about to see some spooky mushroom zombies and father pedro and instead witnessing the most reverently romantic representation of gay love I have ever seen.

Hush director Mike Flanagan penned: 'Tonight’s episode of #TheLastOfUsHBO is one of the best episodes of television I’ve ever seen.'

Another typed: 'The Last of Us episode 3 will probably go down in history as one of the greatest episodes of television ever made. Holy s**t.'